Zlatko Topčić


Zlatko Topčić is a Bosnian screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He has written a number of films, including: Remake, The Abandoned, Miracle in Bosnia; theater plays: Time Out, I Don't Like Mondays, Refugees; novels: The Final Word, Dagmar, Nightmare.
Topčić's works have been translated into twelve languages: English, German, French, Italian, Czech, Turkish, Polish, Swedish, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Albanian, and included in several domestic and international anthologies.
He is a member of the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, PEN Center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Association of Filmmakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, International Screenwriters' Association, American Screenwriters Association, Concordia Organization and the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
In 2004, he was included on the annual Marquis Who's Who in the World list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Early life and family

Topčić was born in Sarajevo on 30 April 1955. His father, Zaim Topčić, was also a writer. His mother, Naila, was a member of the Selimić family; her grandfather was Zaim-beg Selimić, a municipal councilor, landowner, benefactor and philanthropist, who was the owner of the Kravica waterfall.
He graduated from the Law School of the University of Sarajevo. At the age of 17 and under the pseudonym Gold Taucher, Topčić began writing crime novels and short stories, sold over ten million copies.

Career

Theatrical work

Topčić has produced over forty plays, notably the cult hit The Frog, which was adapted into a film in 2017, and Helver's Night, internationally most awarded play in the history of Bosnian theater. He is the only author who thrice won the BZK Preporod Award for best dramatic text, for dramas Bare Skin, Krokodil Lacoste / Silvertown and Nobody's and Everyone's.
Topčić's plays, which have been staged in Bosnian and international theaters, include Collapse, Musa and the Goat, Kulin Ban, Refugees, Plaza Hotel, Time Out, comedy Head-On, monodrama Pardon Asks Radivoje, Radivoje's Son, Happy New 1994!, Bare Skin, I Don't Like Mondays and Krokodil Lacoste / Silvertown. I Don't Like Mondays won the prestigious PEN Austrian Center Award. In 2010 the drama was published in German by Der Österreichische P.E.N.—Club, Vienna, and was printed in over eleven thousand copies.
His drama Time Out had its English language premiere in Great Britain. Also, it was performed in the United States, Austria and Poland. It has attracted world attention from media such as the BBC, CNN, and received great ratings from audiences and critics. The play won first prize at an anonymous competition of the Ministry of Culture and Sport and it was the first ex-YU drama performed in Great Britain, Austria, Poland and the United States.

Screenplays

Topčić wrote the screenplays for TV movie Collapse and four documentary films: The Best Years Ever, Miracle in Bosnia, I Respond to You, God and Blood and Musk. He also wrote the screenplays for Remake and The Abandoned. His script for Remake, published like a book in 2002, was awarded at the competition of the Ministry of Culture and Sport and won the Association of Filmmakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina Award for best original screenplay. His script for The Abandoned was a winning at the first edition of CineLink, held as part of the 9th Sarajevo Film Festival and won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2011 Hollywood Film Festival.
His films have been screened at numerous international film festivals, including: Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Locarno Festival, New York Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Hollywood Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and many other.

Fiction

He has published a collections of stories: The Vital Question, Fantastic Stories, Ptica iz drugog jata / A Bird From Another Flock, Bogomil Legends and Selected Stories ; such a novels as A Man From Nowhere, Kulin, Nightmare, Bare Skin, Safet Sušić, The Final Word, Dagmar, zavrsna.rijec@dagmar, Overture and 28 June 1914.
The story Love Letter from his first book was included in a post-war Bosnian anthology of short stories, translated into English.
In 1998 he won the prestigious Annual Award of the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina for his novel Nightmare, which was translated into Turkish and Slovenian. In 2014 he won the same award for novel Dagmar and became one of the few writers who have twice won this award.
Topčić's novel The Final Word received the Hasan Kaimija Award for best book published in 2011 and 2012, and the Skender Kulenović Award for best book published in 2011. It was translated into French and was ranked first on the lists of international bestsellers of BookDaily and Goodreads in 2017, became the first novel from Southeast Europe to appear on that lists.
Dagmar, his 2013 novel, won the Fra Grgo Martić Award for best book of fiction published in 2013. It was translated into Czech.

Other work

Topčić was the founder and chief editor of the literature magazine Letter and organizer of the panorama of Bosnian war stories in English titled Forgotten Country, as well as an anthology of members of the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina titled The Best Of.
He was a Board member of the Open Society Foundation Bosnia and Herzegovina - Soros Foundation, worked on UNESCO projects and is the founder of the Bosnian Tombstone Award and Nedžad Ibrišimović Award. He is one of the founders of the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 1993 to 2001 the first Secretary General and from 2006 to 2010 a Board member. From 2001 to 2011 he was director and artistic director of the Chamber Theater 55.
Topčić was selector of the International Theatre Festival MESS, president and member of several juries, among others, Foundation for Cinematography jury member for film projects financing. From 2013 to 2016 he was general director of TVSA. In 2016 he became director of the Library of Sarajevo. He was a member of the Commission for Free Artists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, president of Arts Council of the Sarajevo National Theatre from 2015 to 2019 and is a member of Council of the BHRT Governing Board since 2019.

Personal life

Topčić spent the entirety of the Bosnian War in Sarajevo. He was trapped in Grbavica in 1993. Fifty years earlier his father Zaim Topčić was trapped in the Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II, as a communist. About these events, he wrote the screenplay for Remake.

Quotes

Filmography

Theater plays